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My little space on the web where I blog about comics and comic books, drawing and illustration, graphic design, writing stories, and a few tips and tutorials from time to time about them. I'll also share bits about movies, theater, music, (maybe even cooking!) and whatever strikes my fancy.

In the previous blog post, we proposed that comics creators can start building an audience by creating and sharing comics blog posts as an alternative to the usual text posts.

The idea is that when a comics creator creates engaging comics blog posts, these posts have a high chance of being shared.

The shareability of a blog post is important. When people like something they see on the Web, there's a good chance that they'll share it, which leads to the comics creator's website getting more visits. This is an important step in attracting fans.

But what kind of blog posts gets more shares? It boils down to three things: Topic, Format, and Takeaway.

Topics for Comics Blog Posts
To know what topics are good for comics blog posts, we only have to look at our Facebook news feeds to see what people are sharing. Usually, these are general-interest topics, or topics that a wide audience is interested in:

Dating and RomanceCareer and Making MoneyFitness and HealthParenting and Home Li…

This is a continuation of the previous blogpostabout a comics marketing framework that indie comics creators can use. One of the first things mentioned in that post is the use of comics blogposts to attract audiences and build your author brand.A comics blogpost is simply that: a comic that’s 12 panels or less. You can make a comics blogpost about anything. It’s really no different from comics strips, except that you’re not limited to the usual three to four panels. It’s more flexible.

Using comics blogposts is a content marketing tactic comics creators can use to build their author brand. The benefits are:

1) The principle of low commitment. This is the biggest advantage. People on the Web are generally looking for quick reads when they’re on social media. If you post 22 pages of a comics story online, there are very few people who will take the time to read them all. With a comics blogpost, a reader can dive right in and get the whole “story” in around a minute or even less. It doesn…

Click on the image for a larger version. The image gives an overview of the marketing funnel as described in the previous blogpost.
It's based on the hundreds of podcast episodes I've listened to over the past year on online entrepreneurship, online marketing, and self-publishing. Because there are very few resources out there that talk about these topics as applied to the comics-making space, I decided to think just a bit too much and come up with something.
In a nutshell, it's a proposal for the indie comic book creator on how to attract audiences from both the general public and the comics crowd to visit a comics website and lead interested visitors into sampling/buying long-form comics. (brief explanation after the graphic)

Comics Blogposts
For the general audience, use comics blogposts, or blogposts that are in comics form. A comics blogpost is a kind of webcomic, but the main difference is that it showcases the author instead of a specific storyline, genre, or set of c…

For the past couple of months, I've been putting together an ebook, "Website Traffic For The Indie Comic Book Creator," which is a method that indie comic book creators can use to generate website traffic and build an audience. I dunno if it's going to work, or if the information is valuable enough.
But I've let a few indie creators read the first couple of drafts and so far the response has been positive. I was thinking of putting the ebook up for sale, but I'm still iffy.

So I've posted the first ten pages here. Anyone can read through this and tell me if it's interesting enough. I might just post the whole thing online for free reading, and sell the compilation (with bonus material) later on.
Note that the pages below don't have much when it comes to illustrations. I want to put some drawings in there for a later draft, just to make it more visually appealing. Plus, you might catch some typos.

Hello all. This blog has been around since the mid-2000s, and right now it's all over the place, content-wise. I've posted my comics here, as well as my thoughts on writing, marketing and making comics, a few reviews, stuff that's happened in my life, as well as whatever topics that I felt best to "put down on paper."

It's not the best way to go about a blog. And as a former employee of Summit Media, I feel like a novice by not following Publishing 101.

So now I'm wondering this blog is supposed to be about? What is it supposed to contain? Right now, this blog has 113 Followers, based on the widget on the lower right section of this page. A number of you have been regular readers, while most of you have perhaps migrated to Facebook.

I'd want to be a little more consistent from now on. If my blog were a magazine, what kind of magazine would it be?

Here are some of the top blogposts based on my Analytics data from the past four years.

Yes, you might have seen this short comic before. I'm posting it again because I'm trying out this web service called Tapastic. Tapastic is a platform for indie comic book creators and enthusiasts. As of this writing, I've only been on the site for less than thirty minutes and I'm loving it already.

Comics enthusiasts can register on the site, browse through the catalog of comics and subscribe. Subscribers are immediately notified if there's an update, and they can read comics using the Tapastic app (Android and iOS). They can also donate money to their favorite comics creators.

For indie creators, however, this looks like a really great tool. Not only can a you post your comics series on Tapastic, readers can comment and share your work to the more popular social media platforms, plus Reddit, Tumblr, and StumbleUpon. Another feature is your ability to embed your Tapastic comic into your blog or website.

I've had a long and fruitful career in graphic design, article writing, and magazine art direction, and I've dabbled in theatre acting, playwriting, and teaching in university. But Fate led me to making comics, where I've found unexpected and flattering success.